Thiel Owners

tomthiel

Thank You for sharing your insight on loudspeaker insulation.

Happy Listening!

Thank You Tom Thiel

I wish I had known about the findings by Thiel
before I tried experimenting with wool batting ,
so with the knowledge you have shared I will give up any thought 
about trying to use wool , especially since the 2.7 doesn't have 
a seperate chamber for the midrange speaker .

Rob

Rob - I saw and heard the first pair of 2.7s at the factory in 2012. I believe there was an angled dividing board between the lower (woofer) and upper (midrange) chambers.
I should add a thought to the insulation riddle. Many people assume that wool is best, the other synthetics are next and fiberglas is worst, due mostly to cost, where fiberglas is the least expensive. I've previously mentioned that Thiel's fiberglas is a best of form type. I don't think that I've mentioned my reasons for confidence that it's pretty good, perhaps best for the task.
In the late 80s during development of the CS5, I took on the project of comparing, contrasting, testing and choosing an 'optimum' batting / insulation scheme for the CS5. Such research always trickled down to less expensive products where an as cost-effective. I had some pretty luck help. Toyota was coming to town with their Camry plant. Also IBM keyboard products was down the street and the University of Kentucky had developed a School of Advanced Engineering in support of Toyota's success. I've mentioned the happy quirk that Thiel Audio was a 5th member (of 5) of UK's Advanced Manufacturing Roundtable, to which I was Thiel's representative. Lots of stories there, but today's is that Toyota, of course, was bigtime in the sound deadening business as was IBM. In addition to picking their brains, I brought my cousin Teddy (the GE Jet Engine guy) to the party for his knowledge of aircraft noise abatement. Needless to say, there was horsepower in play. Less likely, is that the scheme we had originally developed in the late 70s won the day.

Many of the reasons for choosing other materials have to do with odor or fungus or handling or airborne particulates. Those issues were all manageable and wool felt and fiberglas is what we kept. There are many new subsequent products and concepts. Thiel never approached constrained layer damping or suspended case in case construction. But we did explore various surface damping schemes. I found nothing to make any appreciable net improvement over what we had. And it seems that future products kept on keeping on. Although I am investigating air movement and panel resonance, I haven't considered re-addressing the original wood felt / fiberglas batt chamber damping. For now at least. 

tomthiel,

'Just my little peek behind the curtain regarding how everything is hooked to everything, nothing is simple, and no good idea goes unpunished.'



It's a real privilege to have your input and insights here. Cabinets are no doubt fiendishly complicated things and your words do help to ground things back into reality somewhat.

Thankfully for most of us here, we're only on the listening side of the fence!

Tom

Again I have to say thank you , your knowledge , experience and insight
is valued and appreciated by all Thiel owners .

I remember you telling us that Toyota approached Thiel with the thought of using Thiel speakers in Toyota cars ,
your stories and life experiences are always interesting .

As for batting , I've given up with the idea of changing from fiberglass but still the reading and research was very interesting .
I almost bought some " long haired " sheeps wool after reading about it being the best and used by top British speaker makers ,
but overseas shipping prices prevented me from trying .

I'm back to the wiring because I think I made a mistake when I increased 
the gauge to 15.5 reducing the resistance to much ,
the mid tweeter sound is to forceful so I've ordered
17.5 to see if resistance is the problem .
I believe you warned me about that .

I read an old post by @jon_5912 about the holes between the woofer
and the coaxial chamber where the wires pass thru and the possible effect of them not being sealed , I've not sealed mine do to continued work but I'm going to do that this morning to see if the sound is affected. 
Luckily no damage like jon experienced .

Try , Listen , Learn
or is it
Learn , Try , Listen 

Rob